Less than a second later two torpedoes burst from their tubes on either side of the Trident’s bow, as they did on the other subs simultaneously. The torpedoes raced forward, their target less than two thousand yards away. The men on board waited, listening for the sound of a direct hit. Their hearts began to beat faster.
“One thousand yards…” called the Helmsman.
“Eight hundred yards…”
“Six hundred yards…”
“Four hund-” the Helmsman stopped. He pressed his headset harder against his ears. “Sir! I’ve lost them.”
“What?!” said Hallgren. “What do you mean lost them?”
“I don’t know sir, I just….wait!” Suddenly a piercing alarm sounded behind them. His eyes opened wide. “Sir! Torpedoes are CLOSING!”
“Closing?!” Hallgren yelled. “Closing on who?”
“Closing on US sir!” replied the Helmsman. “Ten..NO twelve torpedoes in the water at eight hundred yards bearing 192, bearing 183, bearing 166…”
“Evasive maneuvers! Get us turned around!” He looked at his helmsman. “Are they ours?!”
“No sir!” he said shaking his head. He turned to Hallgren. “I think they’re from the other subs.”
“That’s impossible, they’re over fifteen miles away!” Hallgren shouted.
With full power, the Montana began to turn. At that moment, the other eleven subs were all doing the same thing.
“Five hundred yards and closing!”
“Blow the tanks.” growled Hallgren.
Still turning the Montana opened its tanks and forced a hundred thousand gallons of water out as an emergency measure. The exiting water was replaced with air quickly increasing its buoyancy. The Montana slowly started to rise. Beneath the water, the sounds of all the subs pressurizing their tanks could be heard for miles.
“Three hundred yards!”
The Montana’s crew held tight and like the others desperately willed the giant ship up through the dark waters. Their ascent was agonizingly slow.
“A hundred and fifty yards!” called the Helmsman.
“Launch the decoys!” yelled Hallgren.
Several large canisters shot from the rear tubes and began to descend. They instantly began releasing giant bubbles and noise to confuse the detection systems of the torpedoes. Several torpedoes suddenly changed course and smashed into the decoys exploding prematurely, but the others did not. One by one, the rest found their mark slamming into the submarines with giant blasts, destroying the hulls and causing them to instantly implode under water. The Montana, still clawing for the surface, was the last to be hit. Like the others, its hull shuddered under the impact and collapsed in on itself. Slowly the shock waves subsided, and what was left of the twelve nuclear submarines stopped their ascent and slowly began the lifeless slide into the dark waters below.
38
The small metal door opened slowly with a creak, and Alison tilted her head out just far enough to get a look around. Beyond the grass that surrounded the back of the building was the secondary parking lot and it appeared empty. She looked slowly to the right, the direction back to the main entrance, and saw nothing but the familiar dark trees and shrubs. She leaned just a little outside and looked around the door’s edge to the left. The large grassy area, littered with picnic tables, sat silently. Further and around the left side of the building was the exterior of the giant tank which had no entrance into the aquarium except from the large deck which was high above and inaccessible from the ground.
“What do you see?” asked Chris nervously from behind her.
“Nothing. Shhh!” she snapped. She tried to concentrate over the sound of gunfire inside the building. She could not hear anything outside. She looked at the waist high hedge that bordered the far end of the parking lot. Beyond that were trees and further still was a faint outline of a sloped roof. She turned around. “It looks clear. I think if we can make it to the hedge, we can stay out of sight until we get to the larger trees. From there, we should be able to get to the maintenance shed.
They both pushed their heads through for a look.
“That looks awfully far,” said Chris.
“Not if we’re fast,” said Alison. She looked at Chris who was wearing a white T shirt. She quickly pulled her green sweatshirt over her head. “Take off your shirt and wear this.” She straightened the dark shirt she was wearing underneath.
With shaking hands, Chris pulled off his shirt and put the tiny sweatshirt on. It was at least two sizes too small and barely covered his skin but was better than wearing a white shirt and acting as a beacon. They both looked at Kenwood’s red shirt.
“Hey, at least it’s not white.”
“Okay.” Alison looked at them. “Ready?”
The other two nodded. Suddenly back down the hall they heard the gunfire stop. That was all the incentive they needed. “Stay low!” Alison whispered over her shoulder and ran toward the hedge. All three stayed close and reaching the hedge they dropped to the ground behind it. They slowly peered up over it and could see more of the parking lot and the road to the main lot. Still no sign of movement.
“C’mon!” she said and ran, bending down as far as she could to stay below the top of the hedge. Chris and Lee followed behind.
Less than ten seconds later, they were ducking behind one of the larger trees in the aquarium’s outdoor area. Still seeing no one behind them they ran for the dark structure near the edge of the property. The large shed, hidden behind the trees, was used by the gardeners and various grounds people who maintained the exterior of the property. They quickly tried the main door which was locked. They spread out and circled it. Both windows on each side were also locked. Alison looked around for another place to run when she heard the smashing of one of the windows. She turned around to see Lee holding a large rock. He held a finger over his lips and then proceeded to clear the rest of the glass by running the rock around the inside edge of the frame. Alison looked around and ran a few feet to a small banana tree. She pulled off two of its giant thick leaves and draped them over the window edge. Using them for protection, Chris and Lee lifted her up and in through the window. Moments later, Lee followed her in and Chris tumbled in last. As an afterthought, Alison kicked the broken glass out of view and leaned a few long handled tools up against the open window.
A few minutes later, two of the soldiers burst out through the maintenance corridor looking for them. They slowly scanned the grounds and spread out with their guns up and pressed into their shoulders. One headed past the outside tank and toward the other end of the building. The other silently trotted across the small parking lot to a long hedge. He jumped over and panned his rifle across the picnic area. He followed the hedge looking left and right until he came to the end. To his right, a small road led back to the main entrance and split in two after passing a small walkway running up to the same double doors and hallway that his other team members had charged through earlier. He turned back and looked at a group of large trees. Behind it, he could see the edge of a low hanging roof.
He moved quietly through the trees and found the large shed which the roof was attached to. He very carefully stepped around each corner, ready to fire at any moment. When he found no one hiding around the outside, he tried the door. He then peered back around the left corner and noticed a broken window on the west side. Unable to see anything inside, he flipped on the LED light at the end of this barrel and bathed the entire inside of the shed with the bright beam.
He scanned back and forth, seeing a wall of tools, dozens of sacks of fertilizers and compost on the back wall, and a giant lawnmower on the opposite side. Behind the lawnmower were a couple small rusted gasoline tanks and in the middle were countless buckets and hoses all stacked neatly in place. Suddenly a voice sounded over the headset wrapped tightly around his ear. “No, no sign of them yet,” he said, stepping back from the window to listen. “I think they made a run for it. They can’t be more than a half mile away. We can still get
‘em.” He listened again and nodded. “Okay heading back.” The soldier took one last look at the window and, not seeing any glass on the floor and the tools leaning against it, decided it had been broken for a while. He turned and quickly ran back toward the building. When he got close, the rest of the team emerged and all ran smoothly toward the beach. After two trips to retrieve the bodies of their team members, they pulled three black zodiac boats out of the bushes and dragged them back down the sand and into the water. Within seconds they had the engines started, their gear aboard, and had disappeared into the darkness.
It was over thirty minutes before Alison peeked out from under one of the heavy compost sacks. With her face smeared with dirt, she looked slowly out and toward the window. A small amount of light shone through from the tiny gibbous moon overhead creating a silhouette around the trees and bushes rustling outside in the wind. She half slid and half pulled herself out from the small gap left between the bags and the wall, and looked around quietly. They had not heard anything since what sounded like boats speeding off in the ocean, but they were afraid that one or two might have stayed back in hopes of flushing them out.
Alison peered out the window and then walked to the other side and looked through the dirty glass. “I think they’re gone,” she whispered to Chris and Lee. A few seconds later, they both wiggled out, covered in dirt themselves.
They looked through the windows to double check. Alison was shaking. “Oh my god they killed them! They killed them all!”
Lee tried to calm her. “We don’t know that for sure, Alison.”
“No?” she said yelling under her breath. “What the hell do you call it when everyone goes in but only one side comes back out?! My god they killed them - Clay, Caesare, and their friend.” She suddenly gasped. “They killed Frank!”
Chris was looking out the window and then ran back to the other side. “We’ve got to do something!”
Alison grew quiet. Her eye welled up as she absorbed the full weight of what had happened. “They died for us.” she said, looking at Chris then Lee. Her voice began to tremble. “Clay and the others died, so we could get out.”
All three of them sat in the shed thinking about what she had just said.
Chris sighed and slumped back into the seat of the lawnmower. “I think we’d better call the police.”
“I don’t know,” Alison said, suddenly shaking her head. “Is it just me or did those guys look like government?”
Lee nodded. “Looked like it to me.”
“Then can the police even protect us?” she asked them. “What if we call the police, and they’ve been told ‘shoot to kill’ or something? I mean we saw the whole thing in there!”
“Are you kidding?” exclaimed Chris. “The cops are the only chance we have.”
Alison and Lee looked at each but remained silent.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys? Everyone in there is dead, including Frank! We could be in there lying right next to him!”
Alison raised her voice slowly. “Well, that doesn’t mean we want to give them a reason to come back either.”
“Oh okay great,” whined Chris, “let’s just hide out here then! You know, put in a change of address-”
“Knock it off!” Alison snapped, cutting him off.
“I don’t think they’re going to let us live.” Lee said quietly. He looked at both of them. “Alison’s right, we did see everything. We also know why they took Dirk and Sally. We know about the city or ring or whatever it is, and now we’re witnesses. We know too much and they have to cover it up. That’s how they do it.”
Alison nodded. “And for whatever reason, they had to leave quickly, but it doesn’t mean they won’t be back. Maybe they let things die down and wait for us to come home.” She sat quietly. “Unless,” she said suddenly looking up.
“Unless what?”
“Unless we stop Dirk and Sally,” she said.
“Stop them?” asked Chris.
“Stop them from delivering the bomb.” Alison said standing up. “That’s why John said they had come here. They were trying to stop it.”
“Yeah,” Lee said in agreement. “I say we stop it and then call the press and tell them everything.”
Chris folded his arms. “And how do you propose we stop them? In case you’ve forgotten, there’s nothing left. They took everything, the equipment, our notes, everything.”
Alison had stood up but now slumped back down thinking.
“Uh,” Lee raised his hand, “I have backups.”
“What?”
Lee grinned. “I have backups.”
Chris looked confused. “What do you mean? The backup tapes were in the servers, and they took them all.”
“I back up the servers every night,” Lee said. “And I replace those tapes every week. Most of the tapes are shipped to a storage facility, but the last two weeks have not been sent yet.”
“So…where exactly are those tapes?” Alison asked.
“Downstairs in the storage closet.”
Alison and Chris looked at each other, but he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. The tapes don’t help without the servers.”
Alison saw that Lee was grinning again. “What?” she asked again with a cautious look.
“We have a server. We have two. The small servers we took on board the Pathfinder. Captain Emerson had them shipped back to me about a week ago.”
“Any chance those servers are the storage closet downstairs too?”
“Yes, they are.”
Alison smiled broadly with excitement. “Lee Kenwood, I could just-” she suddenly changed her mind and just lunged at him giving him a giant kiss. “You are amazing!”
“I know,” he joked.
“Could we install it on the boat?” she asked.
“What?!” Chris said jumping to his feet. “We’re taking the boat?”
The boat was a thirty year old, 40 foot Bayliner diesel power boat. It was donated to the aquarium years ago and was primarily used for small trips out on the ocean for local research groups or students on a field trip.
“We’re not taking the boat Chris. I’m taking the boat.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m doing this…alone,” she said calmly. “It’s dangerous, and I’m not going to risk two more lives over this. There’s something big going on here, and I’m not going to let us all die over it.”
Chris just stared at her, silently constructing his argument. Finally he said “Alison, don’t you think we should leave this to the pros? My mom has a friend who’s a cop, I’m sure we can trust him.”
Alison frowned at Chris. “We may not have time. And I really don’t know who we can trust, Chris. And to tell you the truth, I can’t let anything happen to Dirk and Sally or anybody else out there. I love those dolphins. You know that.”
“I know,” Chris said with a sigh. “But they mean a lot to us too. You know that!”
She put her hand on his arm. “Then help me.”
He sighed again, defeated. “Fine.” Chris looked over at Lee. “What do we have to do, Lee?”
Lee ran through the list of things they would need. They slowly climbed back out of the window, and made sure there was no movement other than the trees, then cautiously made their way back toward the building. When they reached the edge, they pulled open the double doors, quietly snuck down the main hallway and back toward the lab. It was completely black for which Alison was glad. It meant they could walk around the edge of the wall to the stairs without having to see any of the bodies. She felt sick thinking that Clay, Dubois, Caesare, and their friend Palin were laying lifeless somewhere in the darkness. As they made their way through the lab, their shoes crunched on broken glass and pieces of plaster from the walls. When they reached the stairs, Lee led the way down with his left hand on the railing. They reached the storage room and found the electricity to the building was still on. Inside the closet, Lee grabbed one of the servers. Chris carried a m
onitor, while Alison followed them out with the backup tapes, a keyboard, and a number of other items that she did not recognize.
They made their way back outside and out to the water where a small dock led to the boat, sitting and bobbing contently in the gentle swells. They quietly climbed aboard and put their equipment down inside the cabin. Alison quickly closed all the curtains and turned on one small light so Lee could see.
“Chris,” he said, “I need you to find some straps or rope to hold this stuff down. If you can, grab a toolbox too.”
Chris nodded and disappeared outside.
“What should I do? asked Alison.
“Where’s your phone?”
She gave a puzzled look and patted down her clothes. “I don’t know.” She thought for a minute. “I think I left it in Chris’ car.”
“Go get it.” Lee told her. “And grab the charger too.”
While the other two were gone, Lee pieced together the server components. He fired up the engine and kept it idling as quietly as possible while he powered up the server and began restoring the data from the tapes. He let the data restore run and proceeded to rewire the boat’s existing speakers and microphone into the server.
Alison arrived with her phone and handed it to Lee. He duct-taped it to the dashboard above the boat’s steering wheel and plugged the charger in. A few moments later, Chris returned with the straps and toolbox. Together they wrapped the straps around the server and monitor then tugged on them to be sure the systems would stay upright against the back and forth motion of the boat. It took another thirty minutes to restore the data onto the server and a few more still to test it. All in all, it took them less than an hour and a half.
Lee finally finished typing. “I think we’re about ready.” He looked at Alison. “Okay, let me walk you through this. I was able to restore IMIS’ information all the way up to last week. However you are limited only to the vocabulary up to that point. This does not include the bulk of the raw data, which means you cannot learn new words. But you should have more than enough translation capability to find Dirk and Sally and warn them. Now,” he said, pointing to the server on the floor, “the server uses a lot of power which means you must be running the engine for it to operate. I attached a small battery backup though, so if the engine is turned off, you can probably still use it for ten minutes, but that’s it. Oh and the server is sensitive to any significant motion, so do your best to keep the boat steady.”
Breakthrough Page 25
